What is the difference between a civilian and a military intelligence service?

Mossad, The CIA and MI6 are all civilian intelligence services. All three have history of doing covert operations and such, and the military intelligence services do not. (At least not to the same degree) Could anyone explain the difference, please?What is the difference between a civilian and a military intelligence service?(Most of this is US-specific.)



Civilian intelligence agencies usually work on strategic or national intelligence requirements.* They use civilian cover, either as diplomatic/consular personnel (official cover) or unprivileged civilians (non-official cover). They sometimes operate "black" (illegals, no cover). Service intelligence agencies work for their services, or on joint military requirements. They operate as lawful military personnel (attaches, etc.) or black. I don't think they operate under civilian cover as a general rule, but I could be wrong.



The vast majority of covert operations are not in the least bit militaristic, so covert action as a whole is often assigned to intelligence agencies. In the US, this allows the President to conduct foreign operations under the Hughes-Ryan Act instead of the War Powers Act or other Congressional authorizations for use of force.



* Except for those belonging to a larger civilian agency, such as the Department of Energy or the DEA. They support their parent organization and provide decision makers with the kind of information their parent agency specializes in.What is the difference between a civilian and a military intelligence service?The CIA is concerned with foreign governments or agents and what they're doing or thinking of doing...the military guys are concerned with what the foreign government's military is doing or what their capabilities are so that if we have to fight them, our commanders know exactly what they're up against.



Yes, military intelligence perform covert ops...it's just that they usually do it right before an invasion. They sneak in SEALs or Delta or Rangers and sabotage or prepare the invasion site for our guys...stuff like that. The civilian agencies do covert ops where they're blended in with civilians (or as diplomats or other "protected" personnel from an embassy).What is the difference between a civilian and a military intelligence service?In exceptionally basic terms, a civilian intelligence service will focus on intelligence at a strategic level while a military intelligence unit will ordinarily focus on tactical level intelligence though some overlap will occur.What is the difference between a civilian and a military intelligence service?
The military guys wear the tree suits, not very camouflaged